DAVID WHEELER: Why schools spend on sports

Last week, through no fault of my own, I found myself defending sports in public education. Not physical education, mind you, but organized league sports. I was at a function where a friend of a friend cornered me, asking questions like, “Why should taxpayers pay for kids to have fun?” and “Shouldn’t that money be used for textbooks and science labs instead of uniforms and gymnasiums?”

Last week, through no fault of my own, I found myself defending sports in public education. Not physical education, mind you, but organized league sports. I was at a function where a friend of a friend cornered me, asking questions like, “Why should taxpayers pay for kids to have fun?” and “Shouldn’t that money be used for textbooks and science labs instead of uniforms and gymnasiums?”

It was clear to me from the way she asked these questions how she felt about the subject, so I gave her some, admittedly, vague answers about how sports engages kids, keeps them in school and generally contributes to positive social behaviors. From the look on her face, I could tell she was less than satisfied with my response.

Later in the week, I thought about our brief conversation and decided to research the topic a bit more. After all, it’s a fair enough question to ask: Is there any evidence that league sports increases student achievement?

Turns out, the question is hard to answer with any objectivity.

Educationpartnerships.org, a foundation that publishes research on everything from dress code to curriculum mapping, didn’t have one research brief regarding the effectiveness of organized school sports. Neither did any of my other go-to websites. (There is, however, a good amount of research on what constitutes effective physical education programming. I’ll save that for another column).

The only recent research I was able to find on the effectiveness of high school sports came from a University of Minnesota report that was commissioned by a youth sports foundation in Los Angeles, LA84. In the report, Dr. Douglas Hartmann writes that “there is a significant ... correlation between high school sports participation and higher rates of academic achievement.”

Later in the report though, Dr. Hartmann cautions against giving sports too much credit when he writes, “the relationship between sports participation and academic achievement ... is complicated and multifaceted,” which makes it difficult to measure (i.e., correlation is not causation).

I was right back where I started – little research and no objective data. At first, I was disappointed. But then I realized I was looking at it all wrong. Of course there is no objective data on the topic. Sports are about people. And people, by their very nature, do not lend themselves to objectivity. People are opinionated and unpredictable and full of surprises.

So to answer my question, I decided to ask a few people I know.

I asked Dan Tripp, our athletic director, what he thought about the relationship between sports and achievement. “League sports help kids develop self-confidence,” he said. “One thing sports taught me was to always strive for that next win or point, to keep pushing yourself. And that attitude translates into academic success just as well as anything else. If you’re a champion on the field, there’s no reason you can’t be a champion in the classroom.”

Page 2 of 2 - When I asked Sofia Rasher, our parent liaison, her thoughts on the topic, she said, “Even though there’s no hard data, the benefits of organized sports are just common sense – commitment, self-discipline and respect for authority.”

This was a common answer among adults.

The last person I decided to ask was a student, Fernando, a young man who plays basketball, football and baseball for Southeastern.

“It’s simple,” he said, “Sports keeps me out of trouble. If I don’t keep my grades up, I can’t play.”

We sat and talked sports for a little while. He told me how he likes helping newer teammates and how, even when he’s having a bad day, he feels better “putting on my pads and throwing a football.”

On the way out of my office he stopped to ask one thing.

“Hey, Mr. Wheeler,” he said, “Can you do me a favor? Can you make sure I get a copy of the article so I can show my coach and teachers?”

“Not a problem,” I said. And that was about all the evidence I needed.